(DOWNLOAD) "City of Danville v. Hartshorn" by Supreme Court of Illinois ~ Book PDF Kindle ePub Free
eBook details
- Title: City of Danville v. Hartshorn
- Author : Supreme Court of Illinois
- Release Date : January 26, 1973
- Genre: Law,Books,Professional & Technical,
- Pages : * pages
- Size : 65 KB
Description
On April 21, 1970, the defendant, William Hartshorn, was convicted in the circuit court of Vermilion County on a charge of having violated an ordinance of the city of Danville (hereafter, the City) which prohibited the hindrance, resistance or obstruction of any city police officer in the discharge of duty. The ordinance resembles the statute which makes criminal the knowing resistance to or obstruction of the performance of a peace officer acting within his official capacity (Ill. Rev. Stat. 1969, ch. 38, par. 31-1), and called for a penalty of a fine not to exceed $200. At arraignment and also immediately before trial the circuit court denied the defendant's motion for a trial by jury. Between the times of arraignment and trial the defendant served written interrogatories upon the City, to which no answer was filed. The interrogatories concerned the charges in the complaint against the defendant. Before trial the defendant moved for the dismissal of the complaint or, in the alternative, for a continuance and an order on the City to file an answer to the interrogatories. The motion was denied and the court stated that the motion insofar as it pertained to the interrogatories was being denied because the defendant had not obtained prior leave of court to serve the City with interrogatories. A bench trial was then held and the defendant was found guilty of having resisted and obstructed the police officer and was fined $100 and costs. Judgment was reversed by the appellate court. (131 Ill. App.2d 999.) That court rejected the City's contention that if the ordinance was not to be considered criminal in nature and form, it was criminal in character and civil in form and a small claim (Supreme Court Rule 281; 50 Ill.2d R. 281), as the action was for not more than $1000 and the maximum fine recoverable was $200. The City said that under Rule 287 (50 Ill.2d R. 287) interrogatories could not be used prior to trial in small claim cases except by leave of court and as this was not obtained the trial court had ruled correctly. The appellate court held that the small claims procedure was inapplicable and that the Civil Practice Act (Ill. Rev. Stat. 1969, ch. 110, par. 1 et seq.) applied to proceedings for violations of municipal ordinances. The appellate court held that under Supreme Court Rule 213 (50 Ill.2d R. 213) the defendant was entitled to serve interrogatories upon the City without having first obtained leave of court. We granted leave to appeal from the judgment of the appellate court. The broad contention of the City is that the provisions of the Civil Practice Act do not govern a trial for violation of a municipal ordinance. Amicus curiae has suggested that a trial by jury cannot be had in municipal ordinance cases and that the discovery procedures of the Civil Practice Act cannot be invoked by a defendant. No brief was filed by the defendant on this appeal. There is no contention that the prosecution of the ordinance here should have followed rules of criminal procedure. The discussion of ordinance prosecutions in this opinion is not applicable to prosecutions required to be conducted under criminal rules, such as those of penal ordinances enacted under section 1-2-1.1 of the Municipal Code (Ill. Rev. Stat. 1969, ch. 24, 1-2-1.1), or under enactments by home-rule units providing for imprisonment (Ill. Const. (1970), art. VII, sec. 6).
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